Lanny’s Income & Expense Summary – May, June & July

Remember when we had those posts regarding income and expense summaries?  Well.. I’ll be damned if I didn’t realize I haven’t posted about this since the summary for April 2015.  Aka – more than 3 months have passed that I haven’t showed any results from the income and expense summary side of my life.  I haven’t shown how I am able to fund my investment purchases, how I’ve been able to balance both living and ht epursuit of financial freedom, as well as – achieving the 60% savings challenge.  I’m Back and ready to bring it!  This is the summary for 3 months that were missed – May, June and July.  

Income & Expense Summary for Three Months:

Below is the snapshot of what the 3 months missing looks like for May, June and July.  As you can see, there are fluctuations pretty much in every month to the next month, but hopefully I can dissect and describe the ongoing of events during the month.  Pretty intense but I’ll test it out…
lan inc expIncome Side Summary: Salary did not change over the 3 month period, but the allocation did – consider I had a block buster month of dividend income in June and then I set another record for my month of July for the next month to follow.  This then causes salary figures to typically decrease.  This, obviously from looking at the screenshot above, isn’t always the case, as dividend income was high, but still was the salary – this as due to no bonus really being paid out that month and the other category carried quite a bit of mileage reimbursement and credit card rewards.  I received a bonus in May for my hard work on an SEC 404 engagement, which was unexpected, but I am very fortunate to receive.  Additionally, we had our performance reviews in July and I received quite a nice bonus this past month as well, causing that to spike tremendously.  Overall – even with my expenses going up (sky rocketing in July), I was able to combat that with bonuses and a good amount of dividend income that I was able to save and reinvest.  This has been a very lucky 3 months for me – I was able to bring it cash to continue the investment pursuit, but never as much as I’d like to – I need to keep the focused hat on, but I felt like through 2 quarters and even through 7 months, I still have time to keep up with my goals I set.  Overall – decent 3 months, and I really should not complain.

Expense Side Summary:  From May to July, I was in, as a bachelor, 2 weddings and attended a total of 4 of them.  Phew… that makes 3 that I’ve been in and 5 that I have attended thus far this year – with number 6 coming up in exactly 4 weeks… incredible.  There is one in Charleston, but I don’t think I’ll be attending that one, as with work and not having that special woman, makes it tough, ah.. the rough life of being an Italian guy… Sorry, I digressed but it’s been a whirlwind of weddings.  As you know with weddings – comes gifts, bachelor parties, clothing attire and travel.  I had back to back weddings that I was in on July 3rd and July 4th – one in Cleveland and the other in Chicago, followed by a client trip to Houston the day after the 2nd wedding.  Insanity.  Yes.  Did I do it?  You better damn believe I did it.  Two of my very best friends became married and there was no chance I was going to miss it, let alone miss being honored as a groomsmen in the wedding.  Phenomenal, two perfect weddings that were perfectly different but perfect for who was getting married.  Did I say they were perfect?  Here are some pictures:

Andy wedding eric wedding

I did quite a bit of driving during May for clients, teaching a training in South Bend which caused transportation to go up, but then I received mileage reimbursement mostly during June for those trips that I made.  I also drove even more in June with trips to eastern ohio and then also to the Akron area quite a bit, mostly for clients, as well as to Indianapolis for a training we had.  My driving slowed quite a bit in July outside of the very end, which was nice.  That is why the housing expense as a % to income went down the first two months.  Reason why it was lower in July was due to the other expenses all just being a little higher than normal (gifts, entertainment, etc).  Overall – I was able to control this fairly well, given the events of: 4 weddings, 1 bachelor party, crazy travel and then trying to breathe in the life where I can.  Talk about just a whirlwind.  I still was able to catch Mr. Market taking a downward turn to buy strong dividend paying companies throughout that 3 month period to get closer to my annual goals I had established for myself.  Heck, even had time to throw a pitch to Bert to cause him to think more and act on making a career change, again.  Pumped to have you back little man!

Conclusion

I am extremely pumped that I’ve been able to cruise over 60% and actually hitting some pretty big highs – this has been fueled by frugal living, high amounts of dividend income with reinvestment, working hard with my career (bonuses aren’t always a bad thing, so damn lucky) and then just taking advantage of big life events.  What’s wild is that I’m currently outside at a place called Legacy Village at my house on a weekend day typing this.  I love sharing my life events, thoughts, ideas and suggestions with everyone and being able to do this anywhere, with the weather being in the upper 70’s and a slight breeze is phenomenal.  Damn… so lucky in this life.  Let me know your feedback and, as always, thank YOU for stopping by.

-Lanny

11 thoughts on “Lanny’s Income & Expense Summary – May, June & July

    • Tawcan,

      Appreciate it man! Having to find the Mrs. Lanny at one of these weddings, right? Know any single ladies? Jk, but it was a great few months, tons of weddings and man, my legs may be still sore from dancing. it’s what life is about right there! Thanks again Tawcan, talk soon.

      -Lanny

  1. Sounds like great times Lanny. Looking very handsome bud. It’ll be your turn to get married soon :p. Life’s awesome. Your on a great path my friend. Always a pleasure reading posts from you and Bert. Guys take care and enjoy the journey. Cheers bud.

    • Hustler –

      Thanks for coming by and appreciate the compliments – rolling solo to too many weddings though, killing me! It’s okay though, like you said – life is great man and my turn will happen, right? haha I hope, man my hair better still have some color.

      Thanks for always reading and keeping up with us, means a great deal hustler and likewise to you – you have a great blog and story going over there, it’s compelling and motivational – so don’t stop!!

      Thanks again DH, talk soon my man.

      -Lanny

  2. Lanny,

    That’s a spectacular three-month stretch right there. Cruising right past 60% even while attending weddings all over the place. Fantastic.

    I always tell people that if you can get your major expenses under control, it’s not that hard to attain a high savings rate, even if you splurge here and there. The assumption that you have to eat beans and rice and live in a tent if you want to save more than half your income is just crazy. The abundance we now have means you can have a pretty high quality of life even while saving a ton of money. Life is good! 🙂

    Keep up the great work.

    Best regards.

    • Mantra,

      Thank you! I couldn’t agree more about the “bigger” expenses under control. Far too often I see family and friends buying cars that squeezes down on the income and expense ratio, to where they could only, at most, be in the single digits to save. I know some people like their toys and some don’t, to each their own I guess – falls in line with your keeping up with the Jones’. But it is a myth that you have to eat ramen noodles (sorry mantra, know you did this for a bit of time – heck during college – I never tasted such a better meal!), live on water from the rain – it’s all just a myth. I’ve had some great experiences while having my highest savings rate, period. And guess what – life hasn’t gotten worse, I’ll tell everyone that much!

      Regardless – very fortunate to be in this position, to be able to control and know how to control my expenses, finding out what value you truly get from owning a “thing” and the ability to save/invest. It’s been fun learning what the right balance is and I know it will continue to evolve over time. Thanks again Mantra, talk soon!

      -Lanny

  3. Sounds like a kick ass couple of days! The traveling might have been rough but food, wine, and dancing always makes one forget how tired they may actually be. Kudos to you for being an awesome dude to show up to both those weddings back to back. I’m sure your friends really enjoyed your company.
    Rich

    • Rich —

      It was insane, but you are right – the food, the wine, the dancing, the memories – it was incredible. I hope they really appreciated it and what’s nice – is they were both very understanding of the situation I was in; so the one was okay with me missing the rehearsal dinner due to the wedding that night and the other was okay with me not going “extremely wild” at his wedding to make the flight the next morning – all in all – one of the best weekends I’ve ever had. Thanks Rich for stopping by.

      -Lanny

  4. Holding steady above 60%. That’s impressive. And 3% on food. That’s downright crazy! I guess it’s all relative, but if we’re comparing %s tit-for-tat, my food budget looks like behemoth. It’s something I have to get control of.

    Looks like the wedding was a good time. Thanks for sharing this part of your life with us. Hope all continues to go so well in your part of the world.
    Dylan

    • Dylan,

      Thank you for the post/comment. It’s weird, the dividend income increasing every month has helped me reach that goal, so I have to thank my old self for these future results as well.

      Food used to be a higher part of my budget in the past because I would go out to eat a hell of a lot more. Now, if I am in the office and not at a client, I typically will make breakfast lunch and dinner 4 days out of the 5 business days and will typically go out to eat for lunch 1 or 2 times, including the weekends, as well as dinner. It’s all about what’s going on – luckily my weekends were packed with weddings so my gift expense essentially is paying for the event, the moment and the food/drinks, right?

      Wedding was awesome and I’m glad you and a few others find it interesting to see that there are other things that we all do outside of working, grinding and investing, eh? Thanks again Dylan, let’s keep it moving!

      -Lanny

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